Any Old Iron?

As comparisons with the last days of the Major Government mount up, they coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of Thatcher’s non-landslide even though the Seventies were allegedly ghastly to the point of intolerability. Thatcher was the Iron Lady, whereas Major was a hopeless ditherer. Isn’t that right?

No, it is not. Among many other things, Thatcher’s initial pit closure programme (in early 1981) was abandoned within two days of a walkout by the miners, and she had one of her closest allies (Nicholas Ridley) negotiate a transfer of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands to Argentina, to be followed by a lease-back arrangement, until the Islanders, the Labour Party and Tory backbenchers forced her to back down.

By contrast, Major ploughed on regardless with the universally derided scheme to privatise the railways, entirely typically of his pig-headed streak.

But Major compares very well indeed to his own successor as Prime Minister, a fanatical warmonger who handed over much of the NHS and other public services to funny money PFIs.